NEW DELHI: A three-year medical course with six months of rotational internship will be introduced from 2013. Despite strong objections from the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has decided to go ahead and introduce the Bachelor of Science (Community Health) keeping in mind the nation's acute shortage of doctors and specialists.

The new medical course will create mid-level health professionals with candidates eligible to apply being students who have studied physics, chemistry and biology in the high secondary (10+2) level.

Azad said on Friday, "Admissions as well as deployment will be district based and reservations would apply as norms." According to the minister, after acquiring the degree, the graduates will be employed as Community Health Officers by state governments.

"The proposed course is likely to be introduced in the states willing to adopt it from 2013. A few medical associations like IMA have not welcomed the proposal. Nonetheless, in order to address the serious concern of shortage of availability of human resources in the health sector in rural areas, the government is committed to introduce the course, with in-built safeguards," he said.

MCI board chairman Dr K K Talwar had said this special cadre of health workers will be trained mainly in district hospitals, then placed in sub centers or primary health centers and to be taught "some module of clinical work". The cadre can diagnose and treat basic medical cases, get involved in immunization programmes and administer extended first aid.

"We intend to introduce the course from next April. This cadre will also refer patients according to their condition to other centres. We have also prepared the syllabus for the course. Now, the ministry had to take the final call," Dr Talwar had said.

The Planning Commission's high-level expert group too has strongly backed the all new health cadre and had said that as a career progression incentive, they should be promoted to the level of public health officers after 10 years of service.